iPhone pictures

Every once in a while I capture some great pictures on my iPhone. Some of you have seen this on Facebook, but for the purposes of documenting (and hopefully one day printing out this whole blog!), I wanted to put this sweet picture on here. 

That picture was on the way home from church on Sunday. Joey is always so sweet to Norah. She's not always sweet back to him (poking him in the face, frowning at him, pushing him away...), but he is always the first to comfort her and make sure she is happy and ok.  He even feels bad for her when she's crying and throwing a fit, and I have to remind him that she doesn't get what she wants when she throws a fit! 

Sweet brother!!

Kylah actually took this next picture. She sometimes grabs my phone and I find a ton of pictures on it that she took. Well, I saw this one, and I thought it was beautiful. Somehow she got Norah in pretty good focus while the rest of the background is blurry. I love it!

Baseball

 Joey got the opportunity to play on the all star team this year. He is having a really fun time. Joe is coaching his team, and Joey loves this!

 Instead of buying (overpriced) t-shirts, I got some simple gray t-shirts at Walmart and made the backs of the shirts. A little cutting and ironing and we were good to go! I have a gray shirt like this too, but I haven't gotten a picture of it yet.

Sno cones are always a fun treat while cheering on big brother.

How cute does he look out there?!

Huddle up!

The Adair's came to cheer on Joey on Saturday. Matty and Norah were, once again, being adorable.

And again.

Joey got one of the game balls on Saturday for being the birthday boy!

Being daddy and coach at the same time while giving the end of the game talk. Precious. :)

birthday boy!

 It's hard to believe our "little" boy is seven! His birthday was on Saturday, so he got to have his birthday party on his actual birthday. Fun!

We started out in the morning with his presents from us. He got a fish tank and accessories and got to go pick out his own beta fish after breakfast at Krispy Kreme. He named the fish CJ (for Joey and Connor.) Pretty cute! :)

 A glance back at the birthday boy on his first birthday.

Joey wanted to have a baseball swimming party so we had his birthday at the same hotel we had it last year. It worked out so well.

Jumping in together.

It's always fun to have the daddies around to swim. The kids were being thrown around like popcorn! :)

A break with best friends for pizza and juice.

So cute.

The happy birthday boy anxiously awaiting cake and presents.

I completely forgot to get a good picture of the cake I made for Joey before I cut into it. This is the only one that really shows his baseball cake. He had cute baseball cupcakes too. 

We love our birthday boy!

Why are pictures of these two always so cute?!

This purple life jacket has been so great this year. Norah can literally jump in the deep end with it and swim all by herself. It is awesome! Now if I can only teach her how to properly jump into the pool. She likes to jump as close to the side as possible and give her mommy a heart attack!

The day ended with Joe taking Joey, Connor and Kylah back to the hotel to swim some more and then get ice cream at Braums. Then they got to spend the night in the hotel. Fun for the kids. Probably not as fun for Joe... :)

Happy Birthday Joey Bear!!

We love summer!

We have really been enjoying our summer around here. Joey and Kylah made a "Summer List" with their babysitter, and we've already gotten to mark off some things!

Last week when the girls were gone, I took Joey and a few of his friends to the new water park in a nearby town.  It was fun to be able to go on the slides and swim with the boys since they were all knew how to swim.

 See?! Lunch again in the back of my car! :) 

We've done a little "tap dancing". :)

 Norah gets a hold of my phone quite often, and I love to randomly find self portraits of her like this.

Fun with friends Kennedy and Trinity at the splash park.

Earlier this week the kids and I went blueberry picking. We did this last summer, and wanted to do it again this year. Joey was an awesome picker. Kylah did well at the beginning and then got a little tired and hot. Norah lasted about 10 minutes and then had had enough! 

 But we came home with about 10 pounds of blueberries, so I think it was a success!

I'm looking forward to more fun times with my kiddos this summer and marking more things off our list!

The last hurrah

This past weekend we had our last Manthe family get together before Josh and Val and family leave for the Philippines.  Norah and Kylah got to go up early and spend the whole week with their cousins. Joey stayed behind with us because he had t-ball All Star practice all week. It was a nice break to only have one child all week. I think Joey liked the extra attention too!

Joey and I hopped in the car with Courtney and Jeff on Thursday night to head to Kansas so we could spend all day Friday there too (Joe waited until after work on Friday to come.)

Joe's mom wanted to get one last professional picture of all the grandkids. She made all of these outfits. Isn't that amazing!! The photo shoot went about as expected with 11 little kids, but we still ended up with some good pictures. 

After nap time, it was time to play in the pool. Obviously Norah is NOT enjoying herself! She was actually a little sick with a cough all weekend, so that could be why she was not enjoying herself. And, we'll pretend that that's why she was a bear all weekend too! (Apparently she was just fine all week until we got there; go figure!)

Aunt Courtney is always a good sport and jumped on the trampoline with the little ones. Norah, Naomi and Caleb are so cute together now. I love how they interact!

I'm going to miss this sweet little boy.

Joe's parents treated all of us to a fun day at World's of Fun. Here is the group picture I made everyone pose for. Always! :)  We were only missing James and Brianna who couldn't make it up to Kansas this weekend. 

Sweet girl loves her daddy!

Grandpa watched the little ones a few times. And he rode the Mamba, but I missed getting a picture of that!!

Joey is our little thrill-seeker these days. He rode all the rides he could, including any roller coasters he could ride. The first ride we came upon was this one that spun around in circles so fast that it pushed you against the wall and the floor drops out below you. Jason and Hannah were the only other ones brave enough to go on it (or the only ones that wouldn't get sick on this ride!)

We ended up splitting up so the bigger kids and adults who wanted to could ride the big roller coasters. They have a great little kid section called Planet Snoopy where the littler kids could go on rides made just for them. Norah was just tall enough to ride all the rides by herself which was really fun.  

Norah and Naomi (the little twin cousins!) had a great time together. They are really starting to play and interact together, which is so fun to watch.  I think Norah is learning her camera pose from Deacon...head tilted to the side while smiling. :)

Kylah loved riding all of the rides in the kid area.

Norah was a little unsure about this one, but then she wanted to ride it again, so I think she liked it!

 So cute!

We took a break around lunch to head out to the cars and eat our packed lunches. The back of our car has come in very handy this summer for lunch breaks!

After lunch we all stayed together to watch some of us go on the Boomerang. And by "us" I don't mean me.  :)  I get too sick these days!

I was glad I got to watch Joey do a roller coaster, though, because I caught his face on camera as they were coming down the first drop. I love this picture because it has so many people in it: Val, Courtney, Joe, Joey and Josh. Can you spot them all? By the look on Joey's face you would think he didn't enjoy the ride. But he came off with a huge smile on his face and wanted to do it again!

Those of us who can't handle the big roller coasters headed back to the kiddie area. Look! They had a spot just for me! :)

And then the rain started. It was a bummer, because the kids were still going strong at 4:00, and I think we could have stayed a while longer. But, as Val said, it was a fun, dramatic end to our fun day! Most of us took cover in the Snoopy Boutique where they put on a little show for the kids. And thankfully they sold candy so we could have a snack! Once the rain let up enough for us to walk in it, we made our way back to the cars and headed home.
(Side note: Kylah had nightmares about these mascots that night. She ended up sleeping on the floor in Nana and Grandpa's room! And she looked at these pictures as I'm blogging tonight, and she came out crying right after she went to bed because she is afraid of the mascots and afraid that she is going to dream about them again. Oh my.)

The kids (and adults!) were all exhausted when we got home. After showers they all zonked in front of the Ipad.

What a fun, fun day! Thanks Jody and Jennifer so much for taking us all!

After dinner that night Val and Jeff fried up some awesome funnel cakes. Since it rained and we left World's of Fun early, not everyone got to enjoy a funnel cake at the park. They were pretty awesome. As were the fried Oreos and fried Reece's.  :)

We all went to church the next day and then let the kids play one last time together at McDonald's. As always, they had a great time. Goodbyes are no fun! I think Norah's face sums up how we all feel about them leaving. 

We have loved having Josh and Val and their kids so close to us this year. Our kids play together like they have been together forever. It is hard to imagine them not being just a few hours away anymore. But, we know that the Lord wants them in the Philippines, and that's where they should be. We are so thankful for technology like Skype that will still allow us to see and talk to them as often as we want! And, thankfully, we will see them again for at least a full year in 3 years! We love you guys!